Women earn 25% less than men in wealthy households, according to a new analysis of the gender pay gap in the UK. In poorer households, the gender pay gap is much smaller at 4%.
The paper, published in the Cambridge Journal of Economics, analysed 40 years of retrospective work-history data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study.
The research found that pay inequality is less of an issue in poorer households as both men and women in the UK earn such low wages.
The lead author, Dr Vanessa Gash (City St George's, University of London) , notes that policies that focus on women at the top – such as quotas on the gender split of FSTE 100 executive boards – are of little benefit to poorer households, and therefore risk alienating them.
Dr Gash called on pay parity drives to include efforts to improve job and pay quality for those on lower wages.
In addition to the differences by class, the research found that women spending less time in traditional full-time work accounts for nearly 30% of the gender pay gap on average.
On average, women are more likely than men to accept reduced-hour jobs, part-time work, poorly paid work, or to spend time out of the workforce entirely.
Women do so to take on unpaid caring labour, such as looking after children and relatives, which negatively impacts their earnings in both the immediate term and over time.
There is a similar pay penalty for taking on part-time work as there is for unpaid family care and for years spent in unemployment and ill health; where a one-year increase in full-time work history increases pay by 4% an hour, a one-year increase in part-time work history decreases pay by 3% an hour.
The research confirmed that men, still, do not engage in unpaid care work.
Men spend more continuous time in full-time employment, which positively impacts their earning potential.
It is difficult to beat these culturally entrenched gender patterns, as men face a higher wage penalty for part-time work than women, making it more costly for men to reduce their working-hours to engage in unpaid care work.
Sex discrimination is another major driver of the gender pay gap.
The researchers concluded that women face disproportionately high penalties simply for being female after controlling for various factors, such as women taking on more part-time work and unpaid caregiving work, or accounting for the gender segregation across different industries.
Removing this societal penalty for being a woman could contribute to a 43% increase in women's wages. In poorer households, simply being a woman accounts for 207% of the gender pay gap.
The study also highlighted that public sector employment, union membership, and access to parental leave offer greater protection against pay inequality for women in low-income households.
Unpaid care work remains a significant contributor to the pay gap in wealthier households.
Lead author Dr Vanessa Gash said:
"Both gender and class need to be looked at by policymakers to reduce the gender pay gap.
"Policymakers' efforts to close the gender pay gap need to be more strongly tied to an agenda of good quality employment for all.
"Calls for pay equity, which focus on the lack of women in high-powered positions, risk alienating those in households where both partners earn similarly low wages.
"In the context of rising political populism, there is a risk that politicians could pit the losses of lower-earning men against the gains of higher-earning women.
"This is particularly important for the working classes, as there is a substantively small gender pay gap of 4% in poorer households.
"Key to the problem is the age-old question of who is doing most of the unpaid care work in the home, which our research confirms continues to be women."
The paper was co-authored by Dr Vanessa Gash (City St George's, University of London), Professor Wendy Olsen and Dr Sook Kim (University of Manchester), and Dr Nadine Zwiener-Collins (University of Salzburg).
